New Zealand Has Pizza Delivery Drones: New at Reason

Sooner than you think, stuff you order online will be delivered all but instantly, cars will navigate without a driver, and everything from homes to shopping carts will be plugged in to the internet. The latest entity to nudge humanity along that path is not a tech behemoth or a university research team but, of all things, a pizza company. In New Zealand, Domino’s has started to test the delivery of food to customers via a drone called DomiCopter. If tests prove successful, the company plans to extend the model to Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Japan, and Germany.

But innovations like the Domino’s pizza-delivery drone are, for now, only going to benefit consumers outside the United States, notes Veronique de Rugy. Regulatory uncertainty (when innovators can’t be sure what the rules will look like in the coming months and years) and regulatory burdens (when the rules that do get handed down make operations and compliance significantly more costly) create powerful incentives for people to exercise their right to take their businesses to countries where the legal regime is friendlier.